Olympic Museum goes shopping in Paris

At the Paris Olympics, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne went shopping Keystone

When the 2024 Summer Olympic Games ended on Sunday, a team from the Olympic Museum in Lausanne was in Paris to add to the institution’s collection. Its shopping list was drawn up six months ago but was also based on athletes’ performances.

The archery target that was used to break a world record and the signed ball from the women’s rugby final are some of the objects that have already arrived in Lausanne. These pieces of sporting history were carefully selected by the museum to add to its collection.

“These objects are chosen according to the history of the athlete or the technological evolution of the equipment. They are representative of a personal, societal or scientific history,” the museum’s curator, Anne-Cécile Jaccard, who is one of the five people collecting objects in Paris, told La Matinale on Friday.

The objects collected at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will soon join those already on display in Lausanne. Keystone / Jean-Christophe Bott

Witnesses to history

All the items must have been worn during the Games. Equipment is also spontaneously donated to the museum, such as the judogi of Diyora Keldiyorova, the first Uzbek to win gold in judo.

The Olympic Museum collects material and equipment from athletes as well as costumes from the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games. “It’s very important to be able to tell the story of the context and the public’s reaction to a show,” Jaccard says. The costumes of Marie-Antoinette and the mysterious horsewoman will be used to tell future generations about the controversy surrounding the opening of the Paris 2024 Games.

The costume of the mysterious horserider will also go to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. AFP – ARIS MESSINIS

All these objects can be discovered as they are collected on the Olympic Museum website, in the artefacts section.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts